Time's up for THQ. After two years of battling against the tide, the company has declared itself bankrupt and its assets have been stripped off for sale.

The beleaguered publisher initially hoped to decide how it would go into that good night, and it agreed to sell all its business to investment firm Clearlake.
But luck hasn't been with THQ at its darkest hour. A bankruptcy judge ruled that Clearlake was allowed to buy the publisher for an agreed $60 million - but not before the rest of the world has a chance to bid on the company's assets too.

So the games industry has, behind closed doors, been putting cash down on individual THQ assets. Warner Bros, EA, Ubisoft and even Double Fine are among the numerous companies that have shown an interest.

Time's up. The bidding deadline - 9am Eastern Time on January 22 - has just passed. Later today, at 3pm ET, all THQ's assets will be put on the table, the highest bidder will be declared and a second auction will take place to see if any more can be made out of them.

The outcome will formally be announced tomorrow, though some news could leak out later today. The deal is highly complex because each individual asset sale must be added together and the total must be greater than the $60 million Clearlake is offering. If it isn't, then Clearlake cleans up for the agreed sum. But if Clearlake is outbid, then all individual assets go to their highest bidder. However, Clearlake then has a chance to increase its bid - by which point the whole bidding process will become even highly complex, calculated and competitive.

Ubisoft will probably acquire the studios that make Red Faction and Homefront, maybe also WarHammer.

THQ partnered with Crytek to make Homefront 2, they don't own any part of Crytek itself though, and the original studio behind the first game got shut down. The Warhammer games were made by Relic, however they only have a license to make Warhammer games, the IP itself belongs to Games Workshop. The whole deal is pretty complicated, I imagine it'll take a while to sort everything out.

THQ partnered with Crytek to make Homefront 2, they don't own any part of Crytek itself though, and the original studio behind the first game got shut down. The Warhammer games were made by Relic, however they only have a license to make Warhammer games, the IP itself belongs to Games Workshop. The whole deal is pretty complicated, I imagine it'll take a while to sort everything out.

youre right that is pretty complicated. A lot of companies going under these days

The publisher, which found itself on the wrong end of a bankruptcy-induced auction yesterday, will dissolve as soon as its bankruptcy hearing and subsequent sales transitions are completed. Confirmation of this news comes in the form of a letter sent to THQ employees today, which was obtained by Kotaku. According to the letter:

Ubisoft has purchased the rights to THQ's Montreal Studio, and South Park: The Stick of Truth. There is no immediate word on how this purchase will be affected by South Park Studios' lawsuit to prevent their property from being included in this sale. Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.
Koch Media, the parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, has purchased Volition Inc. and the Saints Row brand, as well as the Metro franchise.
Sega will be taking control of Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment.
Crytek has purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise for some reason.
Take-Two Interactive takes over Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve.
That leaves a few properties and studios unaccounted for, most notably Darksiders developers Vigil Games, as well as the company's long-held WWE license. The letter outlines that THQ will be making every effort to find buyers for the remaining properties. However, outside of a skeleton crew remaining to help with the transition, THQ's primary staff is apparently being laid off.

We'll update this story as more information becomes available.

Update: DDInvesting, who has been covering the THQ hearings with great regularity, has posted the prices apparently paid for the individual properties. They are as follows:

While I didn't like Darksiders, I'm surprised they were not picked up. I think it's hilarious that THQ Montreal is going to Ubisoft after the dude bailed on Ubisoft to form THQ Montreal. That should be a real awkward 1st meeting.

Company of Heroes going to Sega is interesting. They handled publishing Shogun 2 which I've put well over 60 hours into and loved. I wonder if they can help make the game more popular.

While I didn't like Darksiders, I'm surprised they were not picked up.

Eh it makes sense really.

It's a pure value proposition. All of the studios auctioned off currently have a game on the books that is partially finished. If you buy THQ Montreal and a 90% complete South Park game, you are paying for the work that has already gone into that game.

Vigil games only just released Darksiders 2, and with the new systems coming up they were probably only in very early development on a next generation game. So there is no value there besides the "Brand". And in this case the brand is a commercially unsuccessful game with no big following or hype and a studio operating at a loss.

Gearbox ended up getting the rights to the Homeworld franchise. Not sure how to feel about that. At least now there's a possibility of a new game I guess, I just hope they do the series justice.

Quote:

Gearbox Software, the development studio behind the Borderlands series, has taken control of the Homeworld franchise. The news comes in a statement from the company, where it states that Gearbox placed the highest bid in the latest auction featuring now defunct publisher THQ's former intellectual properties.

The high bid gives Gearbox control of both of the previous games in the Homeworld franchise, as well as full rights to make new games in the series. All of this is provided the court approves the sale next month, when it is scheduled to review all the high bids.

The Homeworld games were space-faring real-time strategy games developed by Relic Entertainment, which was itself bought by Sega in the first round of THQ property auctions. According to the statement, Gearbox's first priority with the series is "to preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today's leading digital platforms."

As for new entries in the series, the statement goes on to suggest that fans take to Gearbox's forums to suggest what they'd like to see, as well as to "please try to get our attention if you have capability and interest to join the effort in developing or enabling Homeworld's future."